2024 Catcher Rankings

An All-Star break tradition, here are my mostly-for-fun 2024 player rankings. I’ve done my best to list players where they’ll be 20-game eligible next year, and the free agents-to-be are listed without teams. Players with contract options for next year have an asterisk included with their team names.

Click to see other other preliminary 2024 rankings:
Top 300 | SP | RP | OF | 1B | 2B | SS | 3B | C | DH

Catcher rankings

2024	Catchers	Team	2023	July
1	Will Smith	Dodgers	2	1
2	Adley Rutschman	Orioles	7	4
3	J.T. Realmuto	Phillies	3	3
4	Salvador Perez	Royals	5	5
5	Sean Murphy	Braves	12	6
6	Francisco Alvarez	Mets	27	14
7	William Contreras	Brewers	9	7
8	Alejandro Kirk	Blue Jays	4	11
9	Willson Contreras	Cardinals	11	10
10	Jonah Heim	Rangers	18	8
11	Tyler Stephenson	Reds	8	13
12	Cal Raleigh	Mariners	10	9
13	Logan O’Hoppe	Angels	15	NR
14	Keibert Ruiz	Nationals	13	16
15	Patrick Bailey	Giants	NR	30
16	Bo Naylor	Guardians	37	18
17	Gabriel Moreno	Diamondbacks	16	22
18	Yainer Diaz	Astros	13 DH	19
19	Elias Diaz	Rockies	31	17
20	Mitch Garver		7 DH	15
21	Endy Rodriguez	Pirates	25	40
22	Shea Langeliers	Athletics	9 DH	25
23	Blake Sabol	Giants	24	24
24	Connor Wong	Red Sox	26	26
25	Danny Jansen	Blue Jays	14	21
26	Christian Bethancourt	Rays	17	23
27	Travis d’Arnaud	Braves*	21	27
28	Tyler Soderstrom	Athletics	n/a	n/a
29	Jake Rogers	Tigers	41	35
30	Gary Sanchez		35	29
31	Miguel Amaya	Cubs	NR	44
32	Yan Gomes	Cubs*	36	28
33	Yasmani Grandal		22	31
34	Sam Huff	Rangers	45	49
35	Ryan Jeffers	Twins	34	41
36	Luis Campusano	Padres	28	47
37	Victor Caratini		44	46
38	Matt Thaiss	Angels	46	38
39	Jose Trevino	Yankees	30	36
40	Christian Vazquez	Twins	23	34
41	Eric Haase	Tigers	29	37
42	Nick Fortes	Marlins	19	33
43	Freddy Fermin	Royals	NR	43
44	Ivan Herrera	Cardinals	NR	NR
45	Jorge Alfaro		32	32
46	Tom Murphy	Mariners	47	NR
47	Francisco Mejia	Rays	43	39
48	Korey Lee	Astros	NR	NR
49	Mike Zunino		42	NR
50	Joey Bart	Giants	20	NR

• Gone from this year’s catcher rankings are Daulton Varsho , MJ Melendez and Henry Davis. There’s still a chance that Melendez will get 20-game eligibility, but it would likely involve Salvador Perez getting hurt. Davis hopefully will regain catcher eligibility early next season. I’m giving Tyler Soderstrom catcher eligibility for now - he played there more than at first base in the minors - but it’s possible he’ll lose it if he doesn’t get enough playing time over Shea Langeliers in Oakland.
• It’ll be an especially weak free agent market for catchers if Travis d’Arnaud ($8 million) and Yan Gomes ($6 million with a $1 million buyout) have their club options exercised by the Braves and Cubs, respectively. It seems like a given that they will be. Even if the Braves don’t want to spend that much on Sean Murphy’s backup, d’Arnaud will certainly have some trade value at that salary. Mitch Garver is the high free agent-to-be in the rankings, but a backup catcher/part-time DH role likely suits him best.
• In light of that, I wonder if someone might sign Victor Caratini as a starter. He has a solid enough defensive reputation and some impressive exit velocity numbers; if someone could just get him to stop hitting the ball on the ground so often, he’d probably be a nice regular for a couple of years. Sounds like a mission for the Rays.
• Sam Huff could be another 2024 sleeper; the longtime prospect is hitting .304/.393/.531 in Triple-A at the moment, and he finally runs out of options after the season. He’s not exactly what the Rangers are looking for in a backup to Jonah Heim , but he could be interesting if he heads elsewhere.